PROJECT EXPERIENCE WAS PRESENTED AT THE ROUND TABLE WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE XII INTERNATIONAL FORUM "ATOMEXPO 2022"

On 22 November, within the framework of the Round Table "Industrial Waste: Heritage, Realities and Prospects" within the XII International Forum "ATOMEXPO 2022", the discussion of problematic issues and successful experience in the field of industrial waste management, including persistent organic pollutants, on the example of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation took place.

The main speakers of the event were:

1.      Andrei Lebedev, Director of the Department for Implementation of State and Sectoral Environmental Programmes, State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom;

2.      Alexander Korbut, First Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus;

3.      Mansur Oshurbaev, Director of the Department of State Waste Management Policy of the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

4.      Kylychbek Tentimishev, Head of the environmental protection department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic;

5.      Stepan Kalmykov, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In his presentation on "Industrial Waste in the Republic of Belarus: Problems and Prospects", Alexander Korbut paid special attention to the national principles in the field of waste management, the activities carried out in the state aimed at reducing the negative impact of persistent organic pollutants on the environment and human health, including through the implementation of international technical assistance projects. The experience of the International Technical Assistance Project "GEF-6 Belarus POPs Legacy and Sustainable Chemicals Management" in terms of removal and environmentally sound decontamination outside the country, surveys of obsolete pesticide burial sites, etc. was considered separately.

In addition, the representative of the Project took an active part in the detailed discussion of the experience of the countries represented by the participants in the field of elimination of the objects of accumulated damage, including PCB-containing equipment and waste, as well as accumulated volumes of obsolete pesticides placed in the storage facilities of different types.

The types of waste identified as the highest priority for elimination / disposal in the Republic of Belarus were named, they are:

- obsolete pesticides;

- PCBs (PCB-containing equipment);

- heavy-tonnage halite waste;

- mercury-containing waste.

In addition, priority project ideas were identified, including areas for cooperation and exchange of experience:

- elimination of obsolete pesticide burial sites

- cleaning of transformer housings with PCB-based dielectric material for their subsequent use as scrap metal (secondary metal)

- strengthening of chemical analytical capacity of the CUE "Complex for Processing and Disposal of Toxic Industrial waste of the Gomel Region" when carrying out preparatory works for thermal decontamination of wastes of hazard classes 1-3.